August 4-8 2008

[brimike]

SERIOUSLY?!

Wow, talk about pre-conceived notions being blown to smithereens.

I humbly stand corrected.

[Soapsuds]

Wow, AMC with a 2.2 on Monday? Hmmm...why so high? It looks like ABC did well on Monday. ATWT had over 3 million viewers watching on Monday.

[Contessa Donatella]

But, the official time period for GH and GL is opposite each other.

And, basically, you're talking about share, right? Like, say, for example in 1973-76, with ATWT in ranked first of 16 soaps on the air, they had a 9.7 rating with a 33 share. Rank, rating, share, you're describing share, right? That's 33% of the TV sets actually on at that time period. ... Right?

[MarkH]

Jess, call me Mr. Spock, but that is the hugest compliment anyone has ever given me :-).

That is what I strive for. Indeed, I'm building a HUGELY dispassionate analysis of the Hinsey situation for my blog . I can't stop myself...I feel the rhetoric has become unfair.

[Ann_SS]

The ratings are the same ole, same ole i.e. declining constantly with weekly fluctuations.

Unless you worked for Hinsley, how would you know if the comments in the Jossip blog are unfair? Also, if the comments were so wrong where are the swarm of her ex-employees rebutting those snarky bitter comments?

[Jess]

I'm glad you take it as a compliment because it was intended as a compliment. I'll read your blog on Hinsey.

[MarkH]

Well, I decided to share my thoughts on Lynn Liccardo's blog in the comments section. It's not even so much that the comments are unfair...but I find myself very disturbed by the process. I blame myself as much as everyone. I went to that thread...a LOT. But I think we all had too much fine with the demise of this woman's career...and that wasn't right.

[TMOTVSoaps]

Weekly Ratings Analysis

Let me start off by saying this is a very good week for soaps. When everything is up that’s always a positive. I like to see all the soaps go up no matter how bad they are b/c this is a critical time for soaps. After a bad week things are back up, but were still a long ways away from where soaps are supposed to be. Soaps problems this year has been consistency.

The end of the week is still a problem for soaps as you see on Thursdays and Fridays that the numbers are super low. This is a problem b/c networks are not putting the emphasize on cliffhanger Fridays like Y&R did a few weeks back with Sudden Impact. They start doing that again then I guarantee you numbers go back up.

I personally can’t wait to see what happens with DOOL ratings next week as they’re going to get a huge boost from the Olympics, which is kicking ass this year in the ratings for NBC. If DOOL can get close to 3 million viewers or better that will be huge for them.

Without further or do let me break down each soap.

All My Children
The positive news about AMC is that they are getting a new writer for the fall and he starts in a couple of weeks so the show will start to matter again. Beth’s Taylor Thompson character has been a huge acquisition for that show and she’s been awesome so far with Jake and Frankie creating a potential triangle. The negative news is that they are a dead show right now and reached that low 1.7 on Friday. AMC needs to change their camera and I bet you numbers go over 2.3. Every time I watch Night Shift, I keep saying to myself that AMC needs to go to HD.

As the World Turns
Liberty and Parker must equal ratings b/c they had the highest ratings days of that week on Monday and Tuesday. 3 million viewers on Monday was really surprising. ATWT had a huge stunt earlier in the week for August 11 and 12 so that should be interesting on how that turned out. The show has it all creatively, but they’ve got to keep their audience now b/c the Martha Byrne effect is still there and continues to haunt them.

Bold and the Beautiful
Horrible week for B&B with the Katie stuff. They were hot the two weeks prior to last week and they went back to the thing that killed the show and that’s the Katie and Nick show. Donna vs Ridge with Owen and Marcus has made this show worth watching so I expect the numbers to reflect that next week and a lot of Taylor too. Still pretty stable ratings wise, but I worry about it going against Water Polo for the next week. LOL!

Days of Our Lives
DOOL stabilizing around 1.9 and 2.0 is a very good sign for the show after what’s been a horrible summer for them. Stefano coming back is a positive for them. DOOL made a horrible decision when they decided to get rid of Sheffer as the show has been unwatchable since March. Now that they’re getting a new writer things are looking up for them for this fall. The test for them will be to keep their new eyes around from the Olympics.

General Hospital
GH needed to rebound after a bad week historically for them, but the show seems to be relying on their lead ins as of late for the juicy bigger ratings like the 2.3s. All ABC Soaps had a good Monday so GH obviously benefitted from that. This show as bad as I have to admit it needs another stunt job and this time its time to keep that audience around afterwords. GH is the one show from ABC's lineup that can get close to 3.0 and with Gene Francis making an appearance later this month it should benefit them a bit.

Guiding Light
If it wasn't for that horrible production format and odd timeslots then this show would be right up there with ATWT. This is the one soap that's got so much against them. At least it staying in that 1.6 and 1.7 range and not falling below 1.5 like it did at one point a couple of months ago. GL wrapped up a pretty hot s/l last week and it showed as the show got uninteresting towards the end of the week. GL looks to have finally cooled off some, but those changes need to be made so that GL can make it to its 100th year anniversary in 2037.

One Life to Live
OLTL streak of dominating the Girls 12-17 demo is still intact even though they tied with AMC, which is hungry for that audience too. OLTL topping being #1 in that category even though they dipped this week is a real positive for the show b/c I see that as a future soaps viewer demo. OLTL has the young girls watching and that might be key for them as they grow up with Starr and Cole. OLTL is doing an amazing job towards the end of the week helping their Monday numbers and ABC's lineup. OLTL's Ron is doing a great job, but personally there's nothing too special about the show like it was back in May and June. I'll return watching on a daily basis once Starr's kid is born. OLTL is still the one soap out of the 8 that has made the biggest turn around year to year they could've easily been a last place soap.

The Young and the Restless
Actually surprised me by staying on the upside in their ratings. They could be better and worse at the same time, but they are where they need to be for their big November sweeps storyline. Sheffer gets an A+ for me for making this show interesting compared to where it was. It still has alot of boringness that needs to be fixed, but at least its watchable. The positive for Y&R is the Friday rating. For the first time in months besides the July 25 stunt job, Friday was the highest rating of the week. That Thursday was the best episode of the year so far, which probably builded towards the 3.8. Like I said before when Y&R does good every soap does good.

All in all a pretty positive week for soaps even though it could've been better, but the Thursday and Friday rating days are hurting most soaps and it needs to be fixed before the fall starts. Soaps are only going to go up from here since school is starting back and this usually when soap ratings swell. The interesting thing will be DAYS next week, if it fails this show might not have a future. What will also be interesting is to see how the soaps that air from 11am-2pm est. time are affected by the Olympics. I expect some big drops!

[MarkH]

I really enjoy these.

[BlueLick]

me too Mark

I'm starting to look forward to those weekly analysis every week now.

[marceline]

Just curious, you don't actually watch all of these soaps, do you?

[MarkH]

I've been thinking about this. Do you think it is important that he/she watches all the soaps to do this analysis?

If you look at the analysis, it is mostly based on a summary of plot details...most of which you could get from any printed source of episode synopses. Plus, you could read the pulse of the week from message boards like this.

I enjoy reading the summary of the week. Of course, I think what is going on on screen has little relationship to the actual ratings in a given week...but that is quite a different issue. I really appreciate the effort.

[marceline]

Oh God no. Did it come off like that? I didn't mean it too. It just that it's such an indepth analysis that I always find myself wondering if s/he watches them all or tracks them in some way. I'm sorry if it sounded snotty. It's like the feeling I get when you guys start throwing around the numbers and the charts, not criticism, just a slightly frightened sense of awe that anybody's brain works like that. Remember I'm the one not watching any soaps at all save for Jesse/Angie clips on the A&J nation

I enjoy these too. THAT probably should've been my lead.

[MarkH]

I didn't mean to impy you were "snooty". I was honestly just interested in your opinion! Remember, you have shaped my thinking with the Marceline axiom ("nostalgia killing soaps").

Marceline, if you read this, please PM me because I have an Alan Carter question for you.

[marceline]

The Marceline Axiom? Oh dear. I can think of one poster on this board whose head just exploded.

To answer your question, no I don't think it's necessary to watch the shows. I think a little distance actually is good because it gets away from the assumptions that Character X or Couple Y must be responsible for the ratings. It allows for perspective.